Former Seattle police official named to county job

SEATTLE (AP) -- Jim Pugel, the former interim chief of the Seattle Police Department, has been named the second-in-command at the King County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff John Urquhart (URK'-hart) announced Monday he had hired Pugel (PYOO'-jel) to help manage day-to-day operations. The sheriff's office has about 1,000 employees, including 700 deputies.

Pugel is a 32-year police veteran who is well-known for advocating programs that put low-level drug offenders into treatment instead of jail. He served as the first of two interim Seattle police chiefs before Kathleen O'Toole was named to head the department.

Although Pugel was pushed out of that position, he says he has a tremendous amount of respect for the Seattle Police Department, and he's just excited to be back in policing after a very brief retirement.